


Connected

by PaxieAmor



Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Iron Man 3 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-05
Updated: 2013-05-05
Packaged: 2017-12-10 10:53:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/785248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaxieAmor/pseuds/PaxieAmor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harley said that the retroreflectors would improve stealth on the Iron Man armor; now he was going to prove it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Connected

**Author's Note:**

> MOVIE SPOILERS! DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED!!!
> 
> Harley's last name comes from IMDB because if it was mentioned in the movie, I honestly can't remember it.

When he heard his name called at the county science fair, Harley Keener felt the butterflies in his stomach start fluttering like crazy and his heart pound like a jackhammer. It wasn’t that big of a deal, right? His mom couldn’t get off from the diner, so she wouldn’t be there to see him fail, and Grandma didn’t want to bring his sister around things that could potentially blow up…

Right. No big deal.

Harley was actually quite proud of his science fair project, a reimagining of the Iron Man armor using retrorelfector panels to improve the stealth capabilities. He had told the Mechanic—that’s how Mr. Stark had signed the thank you letter he’d left, so that’s who Harley told his mother, and anyone else that asked, had fixed up his workshop—that’s what he’d do if he had designed the suit and he wanted to prove, at least to himself, that it could really be done.

Harley had sent a letter to the Mechanic, inviting him to the fair. He didn’t expect to see him.

“Harley! Oh, Harley!” Harley grinned, realizing for the first time exactly who was calling his name; his Math, Science and Technologies teacher, Mrs. Kelly Zack. She was probably his favorite teacher; she was really smart, and was a three time Robot Wars champion. Her robot, Mother Crusher, had been mimicked by many after her retirement, but never completely duplicated. After leaving the Robot Wars, right before she started teaching, she worked for HammerCorp as a developer and rumor had it that her designs were the only ones that actually worked. It was also said that she was personally fired by Justin Hammer after calling him an ignorant twerp to his face.

She’s pretty awesome; Harley wanted to be just like her when he grew up, but with a little bit of Tony Stark mixed in. Not much, but a little bit. Just a smidge.

“Hi Mrs. Zack,” Harley replied with a smile. “See anything good at the science fair?”

“There are some very interesting presentations here,” she replied, running her fingers through her auburn hair.  “But I think you stand a fair chance.” Mrs. Zack never gave her students unfair expectations, never said things like “you’re sure to win” or “your project is the best one here”. She said that you had a fair chance because in her eyes, everyone did.

“Is Mr. Zack here today?” Harley asked. Mr. Zack was a professor of biological sciences for the University of Tennessee. He was pretty cool too, always coming to school events with his wife. He didn’t look like a stereotypical professor and that was probably what Harley liked the most.  His hair looked like a tie dyed shirt, blue in the middle followed by purple, red, orange, yellow and green; he wore My Little Pony t-shirts underneath his otherwise completely professional suit jacket with faded blue jeans and purple laced bright orange Chucks.

Like Mrs. Zack, he was pretty awesome.

“Yes, Morris is here,” Mrs. Zack continued. “He’s been slightly waylaid by an acquaintance he wasn’t expecting to see here. They’re discussing your project, actually.”

“They are?” Harley looked around, trying to spot Mr. Zack. “Why?” Before he could get an answer, he saw the judges heading over to his table; it was his turn to present. He looked at his tri-fold poster board, red words outlined in gold reading “Reimagining Iron Man” at the top. He could do this. He had nothing to lose.

“Mr. Keener,” one of the judges, his own Principal Wyatt, said with a smile. “Are you ready to present?”

“Yes, Mr. Wyatt,” Harley replied, smiling with pride and confidence. “If you and your fellow judges are ready, I’ll be more than happy to begin.” The judges nodded. Harley looked at his assistant, the small robotic arm on wheels given to him by the Mechanic. “Armagorn, if you’d be so kind?”

“Your robot’s name is Armagorn?” one of the judges inquired.

“He’s a robotic arm and I really like _Lord of the Rings_ , sir.”

“Fair enough.” During the course of the conversation, Armagorn had rolled to the back of the table and picked up a twelve inch Iron Man action figure, carrying it back to the front and setting it down.

Or he would have, if he hadn’t misjudged where the end of the table was and dropped the figure off. Harley had a feeling this would happen though, as it often did, and he was right there to catch the toy.

“Thank you, Armagorn,” Harley said with a grin; yes, the bot may have been clumsy, but that was no reason not to be polite. Armagorn chripped happily and wheeled up a small ramp at the back of the table, settling on the platform at the top. “Ladies and gentlemen, as you can see this is a standard twelve inch Iron Man figure, serving as a one-six scale model for the experiment.” Harley set the action figure on the table, standing it off to the side of a jerry rigged spot light (read as: Armagorn on his platform with a flashlight).

“Is Armagorn part of your project?” a female judge asked.

“For judging purposes, no. He was made for me by a friend, and has been a great help to me and my work.”

“I see.”

“Moving on,” Harley said a bit more hastily than he should of; he was glad everyone liked Armagorn, but his assistant wasn’t the focus of his project. “As you all know, the Iron Man armor is a very powerful, but what it has in strength it lacks in stealth. I propose that this could be solved with by use of retroreflector technology.”

“What is that?”

“Simply speaking,” Harley replied, “a retroreflector is a something, a device or a surface that reflects light back to its source with minimal scattering.”

“Like a mirror?”

“It’s similar to a mirror, but…” He picked up mirror from his table, setting it under the spotlight. “Armagorn, if you would please?” Armagorn chirped and turned on his light, which was reflected back at right back him. “As you can see, when perfectly perpendicular to the source, the mirror is reflecting the light back with the same intensity. However, if I move the mirror…” Harley tilted the mirror up towards the tri-fold poster board at the back of his table, just behind Armagorn’s platform; the light was still reflected, but it was dimmer. “The light intensity weakens. With retroreflectors, the light source can be from any angle and still have the same intensity, as the light is being reflected along a parallel but opposite vector.”

“And what does that mean, exactly?” Harley smiled, moving the mirror out of the spotlight and picking up the Iron Man figure.

“It means…” He placed the toy beneath the spotlight, grinning at the judges surprised faces as the figure vanished. “That you can make things invisible.”

“How did you do that?” Mr. Wyatt asked.

“This action figure has been covered in a clear paint infused with glass beads that act as cats eye retroreflectors. While it wouldn’t be practical on a full scale level, it suffices for small scale.”

“Why wouldn’t it work in full scale?” Harley picked up the figure and handed in to the judge. “Oh! I can feel the beads…”

“Yes, the beads themselves are actually thicker than the paint used to hold them on. In full scale, a paneling made up of the reflectors would be more practical.”

Harley answered a few more questions from the judges, feeling more and more confidant with each explanation. After a few minutes they dispersed, moving onto the next project; Mr. Wyatt patted his shoulder approvingly before he moved on, so that was probably a good sign.

“Nice work.” Harley froze upon hearing the voice, recognizing it instantly. He then  turned to see someone he didn’t think he’d ever see again. “How’s it going, Kid?” Tony Stark asked with a grin. He looked much better now than when Harley had last seen him; no cuts, no bruising… no anxiety attacks.

“You came,” Harley said with surprise, a smile curling his lips.

“You invited me.” Tony looked over Harley’s presentation. “You were right, retroreflectors are the way to go, I’ll have to add them to the next design…”

“Just because I invited you didn’t mean you would come.”

“Of course I came.” Tony grinned. “Because we’re connected. Now come on, explain to me how this works.”

“You know how it works…”

“Explain it to me anyway.”

Harley ended up taking first place in the fair that day. He took first in the tri-county competition, first in the state level and runner up nationwide.

None of that mattered to him.

What mattered was that the Mechanic… that _Tony_ was at every competition after that.

Because they were connected.

**Author's Note:**

> All of my information on retroreflectors comes from the internet. I'm a fanfic author, not an engineer.


End file.
